Corvette Dominates Imola Race

The car of Bert Longin, Anthony Kumpen and Mike Hezemans dominated the race, leading from pole position, and finishing more than 19 seconds ahead of the Ferrari 550 of Pedro Lamy and Gabriele Gardel.

Fabio Babini and Thomas Biagi ensured that Maserati secured their fourth successive podium finish with third place.

The Ferrari of Jaime Melo and Jean-Phillipe Belloc had looked like it would finish in second position after an impressive climb from 11th on the grid. However, a late race drive-through penalty for having too many people working on Belloc in the pitlane meant he fell to third, before being passed by the Maserati.

Belloc eventually finished sixth, having run out of fuel three laps from the end.

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Drivers                   Make                   Time
 1.  Longin/Kumpen/Hezemans    Corvette C5R           3h01:40.505
 2.  Lamy/Gardel               Ferrari 550 Maranello  +    19.264
 3.  Babini/Biagi              Maserati MC12 GT1      +    24.005
 4.  Bertolini/Wendlinger      Maserati MC12 GT1      +    53.757
 5.  Peter/Buncombe/Rusinov    Maserati MC12 GT1      +   1 Lap
 6.  Melo/Belloc               Ferrari 575 Maranello  +   3 Laps
 7.  Collard/Sugden            Porsche 996 GT3 RSR    +   3 Laps
 8.  Lieb/Rockenfeller         Porsche 996 GT3 RSR    +   3 Laps
 9.  Balfe/Derbyshire          Mosler MT900R          +   8 Laps
10.  Casoni/Varini/Panzavuota  Saleen S7 R            +   9 Laps
11.  Kaufmann/Moro             Porsche 996 GT3 RSR    +   9 Laps
12.  Ried/Ried                 Porsche 996 GT3 RS     +   9 Laps
13.  Moccia/Busnelli           Porsche 996 GT3 RSR    +  10 Laps
14.  Vonka/Amaduzzi/Castro     Porsche 996 GT3 RS     +  11 Laps

NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:

     Drivers                   Make                   On Lap
     Stanco/Janus              Saleen S7 R              66
     Lechner/Bobbi             Saleen S7 R              46
     Becker/Hermann            Saleen S7 R              43
     Wilson/MacAri             Ferrari 360 Modena       38
     Kuppens/Leinders          Vertigo Streiff          30
     Bartels/Scheider          Maserati MC12 GT1        27
     Keen/Halliday             Lister Storm GT          22
     Deletraz/Piccini          Ferrari 575 Maranello    21
     Ruberti/Camathias         Saleen S7 R              11
     Bouchut/Fomenko/Vasiliev  Ferrari 550 Maranello    3

FASTEST LAPS:

Class  Drivers                 Make                   Lap
GT1    Longin/Kumpen/Hezemans  Corvette C5R           1:47.868
GT2    Collard/Sugden          Porsche 996 GT3 RSR    1:52.567
G2     Balfe/Derbyshire        Mosler MT900R          1:54.647